Lack of J1 Visa Students Create Economic Headache in Ocean City

OCEAN CITY, MD – Due to an expected shortage of J1 students, hotels here in Ocean City are worried about making ends meet for the busy summer season.

This summer, there will only be 1100 J1 Visa students contracted as temporary labor- down from the usual 4000. This comes as a challenge, especially as Park Place Hotel prepares to reopen in late February.

“1100 people and all of the businesses in Ocean City are trying to get that 1100 when we really need 4000 so we’re all going to be competing against each other.”, says Jackie Ball, owner of Park Place Hotel.

There were no J1 Visa students at all permitted last year, effecting the economy. Ball notes that the past summer was a rough one for the city.

“We do have to limit the number of reservations we take, on the busy weekends there’s only so many rooms we can clean with the staff that we have so we did hold off on the amount of business we could take,  ‘ says Ball

Susan Jones, the executive director of the Ocean City Hotel Motel Restaurant Association notes that.

“We had a terrible time trying to keep up with the business because all of the pent of demand, the extra stimulus money, we did have people who came to the beach so the staffing shortages because of not having the J1s certainly changed a lot of operating hours,” says Jones.

Looking forward, there are some solutions to the shortage.  Jones says they may explore bringing in help from other counties on the Eastern Shore.

“Do we figure out how to figure out how to create some sort of express shuttle system that could be paid for with grants?” asks Jones.